M’Bwende is obsessed with flipping experiences of poverty, sexism, racism, transphobia and heteronormativity into creative genius, community building and positive action. An organizer/activist with various non-profit, NGO and government agencies, their contributions have centered a mix of colored and queer for the past 20 years. Currently a BFA Printmedia candidate at Western Michigan University, their work examines institutional impact and survival as a black, queer, masculine-born-female, parent.

In their current artistic practice they state… ‘Surviving state violence forces one to be creative. Survivors create language, ways of being, strategic interventions and stealth actions in order to survive state violence. These inform how we traverse our own narratives – those found in the creases, folds and margins of our ‘otherness’. They help us navigate the sting of punitive environments and systems which we navigate daily. My work illuminates resistance in the crucible of these dangerous environments, systems, geographies and cultures.’